POV: Cloud gaming on a laptop but the server is your desktop PC on another continent.

[u/Banished_To_Insanity]

Playing Arc Raiders, Alan Wake 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Silent Hill 2 using Steam Remote Play and Parsec (Parsec for single players, Steam RP for online shooters). If I didn't know any better, I wouldn't believe that the game is running 3000 km away in my small room. The experience is great.

[u/NomadaDeBits]

Nice, how you configure that? Its always up the other pc?

[u/Banished_To_Insanity → u/NomadaDeBits]

The other pc is always on. I can either trigger start game via Steam on my laptop and then connect to the stream, or I can use Parsec to take control of the other pc and start it myself and play like that. Parsec works like TeamViewer basically but optimized for gaming. But I find Steam to handle input lag better when playing shooters. And Parsec can stream at 1440p 240 fps, which is very nice playing visually stunning games like Cyberpunk and Alan Wake 2. But you need good encoders and decoders and a very good internet connection on both ends. My desktop has 5070ti so no problem with encoding that but my laptop has integrated gpu so it can't decode all of that, therefore I'm usually streaming at 1440p 60 fps. Beyond that, my laptop struggles. Steam Remote Play is more straightforward tho. It usually handles these stuff itself but the image quality isn't always the best.

[u/Davidas_ → u/Banished_To_Insanity]

Try moonlight/sunshine. First or second option is also really good.

[u/SplitBoots99 → u/Davidas_]

Yeah, I find Sunshine to be better than anything else. That is on 2Gb up and down package.

[u/lazy_commander → u/Davidas_]

I prefer Apollo to Sunshine. It’s a fork of Sunshine but it automatically configures the stream resolution based on the clients capabilities and uses a virtual display adapter to allow the host display to be off while streaming. Great for streaming to different devices etc.

[u/PVTheBearJew → u/lazy_commander]

Apollo is so badass, honestly it's black magic.

[u/Big-Conflict-4218 → u/Davidas_]

Do you use something like Nord Meshnet to remote yourself to your house or port forward? What is better in terms of security?

[u/dirtydenier → u/Banished_To_Insanity]

PC being always on doesn’t sound like the greatest idea. I’ve had some success with a smart plug and BIOS setting to boot on AC. I’ve used my desktop remotely during uni when compiling android studio applications, as my laptop couldn’t handle it very well.

[u/NomadaDeBits → u/Banished_To_Insanity]

Aa nice, thanks for the info. I have 2 pc too so i will try that config!

[u/Sky952 → u/NomadaDeBits]

You don’t need to keep the PC on all the time. You can set up Wake-on-LAN to power it on when needed, or use an IP-KVM from Amazon that connects directly to the motherboard. That lets you power the system on and see what’s happening even when the remote machine is having issues.

[u/dirtydenier → u/Sky952]

Or a smart plug and wake on AC

[u/EnforcerGundam → u/NomadaDeBits]

free option is moonshine for streaming and sunshine on the host/server itself. you need both

easy to setup, just read their guides.

[u/Syquallo → u/EnforcerGundam]

Best combo for Laptops is actually Apollo on host and Moonlight on client. Apollo is a branch of Sunshine which is updated more often and works better overall.

[u/PVTheBearJew → u/Syquallo]

And it has integrated Virtual Monitor which is a game changer really

[u/sleep-is-but-a-dream]

I travel about 250 days a year for work and this what I do. I have a sunshine server setup but same concept.

I stream to my work laptop and my Ally when I’m on the road. My 5080 at home lets me play all the latest games without having to make compromises when I’m not at home. I do have a 5gb fiber connection at home which also helps.

[u/Banished_To_Insanity → u/sleep-is-but-a-dream]

Gaming from anywhere using your own gpu hits different. I'm really enjoying it!

[u/sleep-is-but-a-dream → u/Banished_To_Insanity]

It really does and there’s no time restrictions or limitations on what games I can play unlike most cloud providers.

[u/Otherwise_Prize2944 → u/sleep-is-but-a-dream]

Does it differ much from playing on your home pc?

[u/EnforcerGundam → u/sleep-is-but-a-dream]

its awesome basically self hosted cloud gaming

fk big corps and their overpriced cloud solutions.

[u/takeshikovacs55]

[u/XedzPlus]

I was thinking of doing something like this for myself (except only like 5km away, not 3000), hows the input latency?

[u/Banished_To_Insanity → u/XedzPlus]

It's great. I forget that I'm actually streaming the game. Of course I wouldn't use it for competetive games like CS2, but for more casual shooters like Arc Raiders or single player games, it's like identical to playing from the host pc, not even exaggerating.

[u/champing_at_the_bit → u/Banished_To_Insanity]

Can you tell me how to get these casual arc raiders lobbies please

[u/Linkarlos_95 → u/champing_at_the_bit]

If you play on PC, turn crossplay off and play on the middle of the week, the nasty people go for console players so turning crossplay off you can't get the same lobby as them and in the middle of the week there will be no kids

[u/Banished_To_Insanity → u/champing_at_the_bit]

there is a rumor going on that arc raiders have aggression based matching system. meaning that players who shoot other players match each other more frequently, and players who dont shoot each other match each other. I never shoot other players unless they attack me, so i guess game now puts me in "chill" lobies. people are really nice lol, just today a guy solo killed a bombardier and i only helped for the last 30 seconds, and he still says "lets share it".

[u/champing_at_the_bit → u/Banished_To_Insanity]

I never shot anyone first, and had chill lobbies for the first 10 hours or so. Then suddenly I start getting placed into sweaty lobbies.

I had a guy tell me he was friendly, and we were talking for a bit while looting. Then suddenly he comes up behind me while I'm looting and unloads a whole stitcher mag into my head.

I just assume everyone is hostile now. I want to play but the magic is gone.

[u/XedzPlus → u/Banished_To_Insanity]

thats cool, whats your internet like?

[u/Banished_To_Insanity → u/XedzPlus]

host pc has 500 mbps connection and the client pc has 300 mbps connection.

[u/XedzPlus → u/Banished_To_Insanity]

yeah, that would probably be a major bottleneck for me, i can only get about 70 on both sides, and it would probably be cheaper to buy another pc than upgrade my internet

[u/fonfonfon → u/Banished_To_Insanity]

I challenge you to try and see for yourself. next time you are home, connect the laptop to a VPN from the country you are currently in and play on the laptop and see the difference by looking at both screens.

[u/z0han4eg]

Moonlight be like: "I was there 3000 years ago"

[u/Kokumotsu36]

If you are enjoying Steam Remote Play, Wait until you give Sunshine/Moonlight a try.
Input lag is almost next to nothing on Lan and when configured for wlan access, it is faster than SRP.
Valve needs to give SRP some love

[u/Jonsj]

I do the same on LAN and I set my PC to wake on LAN. Not sure if you can do it over internett. 

[u/jack-of-some → u/Jonsj]

There's a few paths for doing this. 

1. You could have an always on machine that you send a WOL packet through. This is what I do. That machine is on Tailscale and is running home assistant and one of the buttons I added to home assistant is for sending a WOL packet to my gaming and work desktops.

2. You could get an Internet connected (either through a 3rd party system or some zigbee hub) plug and set your computer to turn on when powered via bios. You'd need to shut down the machine when you're done instead of putting it to sleep though. 

3. Some routers have VPNs you can set up so you can connect to them directly (or remote administration through a 3rd party system, though I don't recommend that is feels pretty icky) and can also send WOL packets to local machines.

[u/Michaeli_Starky]

300 ms latency? Oh boy

[u/Xcissors280]

Ive never gotten game streaming to the point where i dont perform significantly worse in fast paced shooters but if you have decent fiber and decent wifi/ethernet it can be extremely good for most games

[u/Banished_To_Insanity → u/Xcissors280]

Agreed. As I said in another comment, I wouldn't prefer it for games like CS2 where even split seconds give you huge advantages, but for more casual shooters it's just great!

[u/Thiel619]

I actually tried this just once like 3 years ago. Went to my uncle's house out of town like 500 miles away. Left my pc on and tried using their laptop to play with RemotePlay but the input lag was atrocious.

[u/Brilliant-Ice-4575]

Just a second... Another continent? I can't play WOW on EU server from US, and yet here you are playing all sorts of random games from your PC? With that logic one could use PS Portal to stream stuff from his PS5 from home, which is impossible.

[u/Who_asked_you_ → u/Brilliant-Ice-4575]

That's... definitely possible lmao

[u/Brilliant-Ice-4575 → u/Who_asked_you_]

Well... Technically is possible, practically I see people complaining that it is unplayable within the same network even :/ Can't imagine using it that way on another continent?

[u/Who_asked_you_ → u/Brilliant-Ice-4575]

Its all up to situation, I have 1 gigabyte fiber and have no issue streaming SRP within my own home. If I take my steam deck to work several miles away for example which has significally worse connection, It doesn't work very well. However if I go to my mothers a few states away who also has 1 gigabyte fiber i'm able to stream without issues.

[u/Brilliant-Ice-4575 → u/Who_asked_you_]

Wow! That is good to know! I am looking forward doing the same thing with PS5 and Portal, but reading the comments online I mostly curbed my expectations to local, playing in another room or so....

[u/jack-of-some → u/Brilliant-Ice-4575]

The PS Portal has a lot of other problems as well. The encode/decode latency is much higher on the PS Portal vs most PC based systems where it's on the order on 1 millisecond. Al that adds up when network becomes less than ideal.

[u/Brilliant-Ice-4575 → u/jack-of-some]

A-Ha! Makes sense! So PC to PC streaming will always be better? Good to know!

[u/Baseball-Traditional]

what's the game on screen?

[u/Banished_To_Insanity → u/Baseball-Traditional]

Arc Raiders

[u/magikarp_splashed]

I tried remote play from my PC in the office to the TV in the next from. Latency was ass unfortunately, and the game was pretty basic, Firewatch. Maybe it was bad bc its a TV not another pc?

[u/RadialRacer]

I will never understand how people manage to play games with severe input lag. Even short bursts on games "suited" to the tech make me a little motion sick.

[u/Hydesx]

Stupid question but can I charge a fee for others to remotely use my rig for cloud gaming?

[u/Banished_To_Insanity → u/Hydesx]

Good question, but I am not aware of any service like that

[u/physicsking]

How do you handle a power outage where your PC is? Do you have someone that can go into your place and restart your PC?

[u/Banished_To_Insanity → u/physicsking]

Unfortunately no. I leave it on for all the time I'm away. I can restart and connect again, but if it turns off for some reason I'm fcked lol.

[u/G0alLineFumbles → u/Banished_To_Insanity]

Check your BIOS for power options, lots of BIOS will have an option to turn back on once power is restored.

[u/physicsking → u/G0alLineFumbles]

WTF.... For real? Can you throw me a key word. I will Google this

[u/G0alLineFumbles → u/physicsking]

Some key words "Your MOBO name then, APM Configuration, or Restore power, or last state"

Example article for an ASUS MOBO. https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1049855/

[u/physicsking → u/G0alLineFumbles]

APM? Thanks

As dumb as it sounds, I never even thought about this because I didn't think it was possible. This makes remote gaming, way more feasible.

[u/G0alLineFumbles → u/physicsking]

APM - Advanced Power Management.
Wiki. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Power_Management

[u/Essebruno]

I am currently in Brazil with my gaming laptop with a 1660ti. Could def do that with my 5090 but I am too scared of it melting and burning my flat down lol

[u/Banished_To_Insanity → u/Essebruno]

Lol I feel you. Leaving pc on alone is scary. I take the risk nevertheless 

[u/Background_Tap676]

Big Latency if u so far. I use same system but i buy wifi power socket and use remote! Also install any desk! For some emergency access. Steam can run any game on u pc! not only steam u buy! Its nice.

[u/PastaVeggies]

That .5 - 1 second latency would drive me bonkers

[u/Ltsmba → u/PastaVeggies]

Where are you seeing their network latency in the image?

They dont have that statistic showing.

Although I cant imagine its anything less than 200ms at a 3000+KM distance.
I personally cant stand anything above 100ms network latency using moonlight/sunshine.
Unless its some kind of turn based game.

[u/FireCrow1013]

Yup, having remote access to your home machine is fantastic. I've got mine set up to be able to be turned on using a Raspberry Pi, so that's what stays on indefinitely instead of the desktop itself.

[u/NEFARl0US]

This is exactly my setup when I'm visiting my parents. Very cool!

[u/jack-of-some]

Can you look at round trip latency stats? I'm curious. What are the two locations?

The ping from Maryland to various parts of Europe is about 100ms for me right now. I think that would be very playable but also quite palpable for me.

I should try streaming from my machine in Texas which is about 2500km. That ping is. A more reasonable 40ms or so.

[u/FruitBeef]

I do the same thing with my 2014 gaming laptop to stream 720p 30fps bitrate around 7-10MB (15MBupload cable :/)from home when I'm at a friend's. Experimented with steam remote play, but parsec seems more responsive. The lower resolution is sorta nice cause I can play at higher settings than I usually would, offering a more current gen console feel. I use Chrome remote desktop for configuring, since I prefer the UX over parsec.

[u/NvidiatrollXB1]

This is streaming I can get behind. Now, the cloud hosting bs like geforce now can f off with that. All for doing it yourself though via your own rig.

[u/SmoogzZ]

I’ve always been anti cloud gaming but i actually dabbled a bit last night on my ipad with a controller attached via bluetooth and was shocked at how good it was. anything online is still a no but single player games are astoundingly good

[u/SnickerLips-6966]

Currently on vacation on the other side of the world, do exactly the same. Works perfectly.

[u/buxA_]

I tried parsec, bf6 works but cs2 feed is like updates after 5s in game (in menu its ok). No yellow icons.

[u/Big-Conflict-4218]

Anyone tried this on a Linux host machine but with a Windows/Mac as client?

[u/Ws6fiend]

Not cloud gaming, just remote. Cloud services mean that as you need them, they are allocated to you. Remote play is not cloud, because you are only connecting to one specific computer, yours.

[u/Guilty_Rooster_6708]

How’s your network latency? I tried to stream games from my 5070Ti to my Steam Deck (West Coast to East Coast U.S), but network latency is around 80ms, completely unplayable for games.

[u/Big-Conflict-4218 → u/Guilty_Rooster_6708]

There's people who live in Europe but their remote PC is in Asia and they get at least 200ms latency on fiber

[u/Rigman-]

People like this are the reason why we won't own anything and 'be happy.'

[u/Banished_To_Insanity → u/Rigman-]

I think you misunderstood. I am using my own desktop pc to stream the game to my laptop.

[u/Kriegas → u/Banished_To_Insanity]

He understood but changed "you" to corporation like "nvidia", "microsoft", "openai" and you will be paying daily,weekly,monthly subscription to them pretty soon, since no PC parts be available for consumers.

[u/Cannon__Minion]

Your QWERTY isn't QWERT-ing buddy boy.

[u/Banished_To_Insanity → u/Cannon__Minion]

German keyboard be like

[u/Doppelkammertoaster]

Own nothing and be happy.

[u/FireCrow1013 → u/Doppelkammertoaster]

Own nothing and be happy.

This setup is the literal opposite of owning nothing. The games are all on the OP's own machine.

[u/PrinceNorway]

Fuck this ad. Paying a service to play video games. This is why they keep prices high for everyone else

[u/Banished_To_Insanity → u/PrinceNorway]

Dude what service are you talking about? I am literally streaming from my own desktop pc? 

[u/SnickerLips-6966 → u/PrinceNorway]

Parsec is free to use.

[u/shompthedev]

"The experience is great." Sure dude. Any FPS feels like ass even if you streamed over LAN.

[u/Banished_To_Insanity → u/shompthedev]

Well I can't speak for your experience, but given my setup and connection, my experience really is great. I'm not even promoting a service here, just talking about using my own pc. Have no reason to sell it to you.